Critical thinking when engaged in science problem solving around even simple tasks such as the Piagetian volume conservation task is a complex endeavor. Tasks such as the conservation task often require the interaction of multiple cognitive systems. Parity judgment, retrieval, and lateral thinking are three examples of such systems interacting…

Suggests some difficulties and challenges in understanding and teaching Piaget's new theory. Outlines some differences between Piaget's new and standard theories, such as the diminished status of the emergent skills that mark the onset of concrete operational thinking and the perception of achievements in concrete operations as empirical…

Purpose: The authors investigated mental representations of Piagetian conservation tasks in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing peers. Children with SLI have normal nonverbal intelligence; however, they exhibit difficulties in Piagetian conservation tasks. The authors tested the hypothesis that conservation…

Two studies demonstrated dissociation between preschoolers' understanding of pictorial and mental representations. Results showed that false picture tasks were significantly easier than false belief tasks. There was no correlation between performance on the two. Children were trained on false belief, false picture, or number conservation tasks;…

The effects of instruction in the Piacceleration Program (PXL), a hands on mastery-based program of instruction in Piagetian skills, on the acquisition of skills of classification, seriation, and conservation were studied with 28 Head Start students of Hispanic origin and 28 comparisons. PXL students did perform better on these skills. (SLD)

An analysis of children's narrative composition and art revealed concurrent development at both a general structural level and at a fine-grained detail level. A three-part study investigated whether this general cognitive pattern would be maintained across a different range of tasks: literary composition, scientific reasoning, and working memory.…

If, as research suggests, exposing children to two languages and two cultures provides a cognitive advantage, it could be assumed that a child exposed to two languages may be accelerated in a more advanced cognitive stage (as defined by Piaget) than a child exposed to only one language. This study sought to determine when Hispanic children from…